Dr. Turai completed her PhD at Eötvös Lóránd University Budapest. Previously she earned a Master`s in Hungarian Social- and Ethno-Linguistic Studies. She received her Bachelor`s degree in Ethnography, Folklore and Anthropological Studies, and Hungarian Literary and Linguistic Studies. She has published many articles and chapters in books. Her main results were published in 2 books: Öreg ember nem vénember. (Elders, not olds) Balassi Kiadó, Budapest, 2010.; Az életút végén. Szilágyborzási idősek társadalomi helyzetének vizsgálata (At the End of the Life Course. Analysis of the Social Situation of the Elderly of Bozieş). Cluj: KJNT, 2004. Dr. Turai began her scientific career at muzeolog (Museum of Ethnography, Budapest). Since 2006 she has been a researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ethnographic Institute.She is also teaching at the International Student Program of the Corvinus University. She is a Fulbright Exchange Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Project Summary

The shortage in the care system and the social and economic constraints of the sending communities lead to the formation of a very special base for the care market. The migrant care workers enter the care system in a special way. The residential care work performed by them is at the intersection of familialistic work, professional job and servant service. The research aims to reveal the East Europeans participation in the global care chain: organization of the care migration, contribution to the care regime as skilled and not-skilled workers, advantages and disadvantages of working in domestic sector, reproduction of gender division of labour, and consequences of the massive female migration.

Major Publications

"What is a Migrant Care Worker? Being at the Crossroads of Servant, Family Member and Nurse Status", Széman Zsuzsa (szerk.): Challenges of the Ageing Societies in the Visegrad Countries. Magyar Máltai Szeretszolgálat, Budapest, 2012. 73–78.

"Cultural Conceptions of Old Age in a Rural Community", Journal of Ethnography and Folklore, 2010. 1.2:103–116.